Forum Message

For comparison.A new airport in the Thames Estuary, apart from the obvious benefits of being safer over water and air/ noise pollution with the ability of the oceans to absorb Co2 would cost £15 billion.The Thames Estuary already has high capacity public transport links. By creating a short connecting spur the Isle of Grain can benefit from high speed rail links to the UK and the new airport would be less than 26 minutes by train from St Pancras.It would take 7 years to build.The key advantage is that it could be reached from 3 sides by sea.There would be really good connectivity from land. Access to the ports for delivering material. In terms of doing the landfill, easy access to the dredge sites that will provide the material - so creating a greenfield site.Whereas at Heathrow move a motorway junction for the primary access, suppress the roads, demolish all of the infrastructure and reconfigure the whole of the airport in order to get to the third runway.The demolition of 900 homes and entire villages with a further 2.500 which Heathrow have admitted would be too close to be tenable.Hydropower generators would be integrated into a new flood barrier which would provide a major source of clean renewable energy for the South East while satisfying the demands of the Estuary airport.It would also have the capability of ( crucially ) serving Scotland. All this and a great deal more on Foster+ partners/Thames hub airport.This is not just for the South East. It is for the whole of the UK and the Globe with regard to climate change and the economy.Worth considering?